


(How to Fail at) Adjusting

by F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)



Series: Dark Matter [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Depression, Fluff, Gen, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Yorak: Therapy Dog Extrordiare, good coping skills? Who Is She, kinda Keith-centric but from Lance's pov?, not spelled out but thats. basically a lot of what's going on here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-22 19:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk
Summary: Lance is worried for his friend, but they've got a meeting with the Blade on their base that they have to go to so he can't force Keith to sleep.And then it turns out going to the Blade base does a world of good for Keith.





	(How to Fail at) Adjusting

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't exactly MEAN to post this, but I was jotting down notes for another thing and I had this idea and it hasn't left me alone to write my actual homework since so here it is.  
> Also I wrote half of this on the bus to restock my protein bar stash so there's probably like. More typos than normal. I think I got them all but we'll see. I just need to post this before I think of even more to add because it is Late and I have a bunch of academic stuff I need to do before Thanksgiving rolls around.

Lance walked into the Castle’s kitchen to find Keith already there. He stopped in the doorway and looked at him, concerned. The Red now Black Paladin was staring into his untouched bowl of aglasse, completely still. There were large bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept since...since Shiro had disappeared. Lance had to wonder when he’d last taken a shower, he was still in his armor.

“Keith?”

Keith blinked, and Lance realized he hadn’t for the while Lance had been standing in the doorway. The other Paladin’s head raised to look at him. “Yeah?”

“Are you...are you okay?”

Lance watched as Keith’s face managed to close off even more than it usually was. “I’m fine. Just not hungry I guess.” Keith got up and brushed past him, leaving the bowl uneaten behind him.

Lance sighed and sat down across from where Keith had been. He stared at the bowl, considering if he should leave it in case Keith came back or just eat it himself. Something had been...off with Keith since Shiro had disappeared and they’d all gone through the Lion Switch. He’d call it just the stress of suddenly having to lead the team, but Lance kept catching Keith similar to how he’d been this morning. Disheveled, clearly not from sleeping, not eating, staring off into space. He seemed at the same time more prone to emotional outbursts and like he had no emotions at all. It didn’t seem like a typical stress response.

“Lance! Lance, where are you?”

“Kitchen, Hunk!”

Hunk’s head appeared in the doorway. “Oh, you’re eating, good. Wait, you hate aglasse.”

“I didn’t get that out, Keith did.”

Hunk took a minute to process this. “...oh. Did he eat...any of it?”

Lance shook his head. Hunk pursed his lips. “Well, you need to eat, we’re leaving for the Blade base in just under a varga. I’ll see if I can find Keith.”

“You’re not gonna be able to.”

“I know,” Hunk sighed. 

* * *

Lance guided Scarlet through the gravity wells that surrounded the Blade base with ease. He still didn’t feel like this was quite as easy as Keith had made it look, but Scarlet assured him he was doing just fine, even Keith thought that sometimes.

**You’re still connected to him, right?**

**A little. It’s mostly dormant for now, his ability to make the connection is currently dominated by Kuro. I can sense him, and I can sense his emotions, but I can’t communicate without him having to shut down his connection with Kuro and me with you.**

**Is he...okay?**

Scarlet was silent for a moment as they passed through the worst part of the gravity waves. **I don’t know. He’s...closed off. I think he’s even closed off from Kuro, which isn’t good for their ability to work together. It concerns me. He was always wide-open with me, didn’t care what I could sense and even welcomed it. That’s part of why we worked together so well so quickly. It’s almost like….almost like he doesn’t want it to work, with Kuro.**

That concerned Lance. He was already concerned, but that just confirmed that he really should be concerned. **What does he think closing himself off from Kuro will accomplish??? That’s just going to hinder Voltron’s ability to form, and work together, and what about the Navarea? That’s a really important part of the bond and if he can’t manage to activate that eventually because he’s so damn** **_stubborn--_ **

**Lance. I don’t think it’s him being stubborn. I’m not gonna give you every detail of those few movements between Shiro’s disappearance and when Kuro accepted him, but he was….he wasn’t in a good state of mind. We can talk about how to help him later, we need to land.**

**Right, right, landing.**

Lance turned Scarlet though the curve into the hangar on top of the Blade’s base. The doors opened just enough to let them through and then closed as they landed in an open spot. Scarlet settled into a comfortable position for the quintant and a half they had until the pathway opened up again, then opened her mouth to lower her ramp. **You gonna be alright?**

**Even a Lion could use a break. It’s been a long two phoebs. I am going to sit here and bask in the warmth of this star while you go intel gathering and mission planning.**

Lance rolled his eyes and stood. “Have fun with that.” He swung himself out of her cockpit and walked down the ramp to join the other four Paladins.

Kolivan was just raising from his usual bow. “Welcome, Paladins. I hope you are settling into your new arrangement well?”

Keith gave a short nod. “Yes, thank you, Kolivan. We’re back to battle ready, which is why we’re here.”

Kolivan looked like he was resisting raising an eyebrow, but just barely. Lance didn’t blame him. Keith didn’t look like he’d brushed his hair in the entire phoeb and a half of him being Black Paladin which definitely did not send a “battle ready” impression. He was at least partially right, though, they could at least form Voltron on command now. Not the most _stable_ of Voltrons, but it existed. All it would take was time. Hopefully.

“Well, then we should start right away.” Kolivan turned and started walking towards the exit, beckoning them to follow him. “My teams have gathered a few missions that we do not have the firepow--”

He was cut off by a loud bark from the far doorway. Suddenly there was another noise and just as Keith opened his mouth to ask what it was he was bowled over by a very large weight. He had his (theblackoneShiro’snothis) bayard in his hand before he realized that whatever was on top of him was licking his face and very happy about it. He turned his head and it licked his cheek again before he could manage to grab onto its fur. It stopped licking him and simply stood on him, a grin on its face and drool dripping onto his armor.

“You have...a dog.”

The dog yipped and licked his face again. Keith let his bayard dissipate and gently pushed the dog until he was able to sit up. They were a beautiful, albeit clearly alien, dog. Their fur was a deep navy, almost black, but a large tuft of fur that started at the back of their head almost like a mane and extended to create their tail was a lighter, almost see-through steel blue. The dog had lighter blue markings on their head and chest, along with electric blue markings around their eyes and down their sides and ears. The lighter blue on their chest almost looked like the Voltron symbol. He scratched behind the dog’s ears and it closed its eyes and yipped again, clearly happy.

Lance watched in bewilderment as this dog brought a light back to Keith’s eyes he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

A panting Blade ran up behind Kolivan. “Kolivan, Paladin, I’m so sorry, he woke up and then started teleporting around faster than I could keep up. So sorry, I can take Yorak now--”

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Keith said. He hadn’t stopped scratching the dog’s ears. “What’s his name, Yorak?”

“Uh, yeah, Yorak.”

“Hm. Good name. Isn’t that a good name, huh boy?” Yorak barked and licked Keith again. “Yeah you’re a good boy aren’t you. Can you let me stand up?”

Miraculously to everyone who didn’t understand why this half-Galra was talking in his native language in a high-pitched voice to this dog, Yorak stepped off of Keith’s lap and Keith stood up. He patted the dog’s head and he leaned against him. Yorak almost seemed like he was purring. “What type of dog is he?”

“He’s a dúzímúkir,” Kolivan answered, “Air wolf, commonly. Their quintessence is almost pure air-type, which allows them a few abilities. As you saw when he arrived, the main one is teleportation. We’re also pretty sure he can sense people’s quintessence. Unfortunately, they’re almost an extinct species now; Yorak is one of the few left alive. One of our Blades saved him on a mission and he’s sort of become the base pet.”

“Yorak, come on, the Paladin has important stuff to do.”

Yorak angrily barked at the poor Blade. “Hey, Yorak, no,” Keith gently scolded him. “It’s alright, uhh..what’s your name?”

“Vanab.”

“He can stay with me, Vanab, I don’t mind. So unless Kolivan does?”

Kolivan considered the Paladin and the wolf. Something seemed to have changed in the Paladin since before the fight with Zarkon, or maybe just come to the surface more. He didn’t have the same wildfire in his movements and behind his voice and in his eyes that had gotten him through the Trials. But when Yorak had appeared, some of that had come back. The fire was back in his eyes and his hands moved with purpose. “Whatever you desire, Paladin.”

Yorak yipped and headbutted Keith’s legs. “Alright, alright, come on, Yorak, you can follow me.” 

* * *

 

Lance entertained himself the rest of the day by pretending not to stare at Keith. He definitely wasn’t back to his normal self, but he was more focused than he had been. His strategies actually made sense to people other than him right off the bat, and he seemed to be actively engaging in the conversation for once instead of monosyllabic words or emotional outbursts.

He was pretty sure the key to all this was Yorak.

There was one instance where Lance had been paying attention to Kolivan like he was supposed to be, but then heard Keith quietly whispering in Galran. He glanced over and saw the other Paladin whispering to Yorak, who had his paws on Keith’s lap and looked like he was trying to jump up. “No, Yorak, you’re not gonna be able to fit on my lap, you’re as long as I am tall.” The dog whined and gave Keith puppy dog eyes and Lance swore Keith was going to give in and let the big dog sit on his lap when Kolivan asked him a question and Keith was forced to turn his attention. Other than that, though, Yorak seemed content to curl up in a ball next to Keith. He was a...Lance wasn’t sure calming was the right word, but he was a good influence on Keith just by sitting there.

Until the moment the meeting ended. As soon as Keith stood up, Yorak barked at him and nudged his nose against Keith’s thigh. “What’s up?” Keith asked, looking down at the dog. He barked and then wound his tail around Keith’s arm.

Lance watched in part amusement part horror as Keith tried to figure out why Yorak was doing this, which soon became obvious because they disappeared with a set of quintessence-blue sparkles and a cut off yelp from Keith. “What the fuck?”

Kolivan just sighed. “He’ll be fine. Yorak doesn’t teleport people places they can’t breathe or fit.”

“Yorak...does that regularly?”

“Usually only with the Blade that brought him back, but he occasionally does it to others. He’s really taken a shine to Keith, though.”

The four Paladins blinked and looked at each other. “Well, if you’re sure he’s okay….”

All their helmets, including Keith’s that he’d left on the table, beeped in unison. Pidge, Hunk, and Allura all looked at Lance. He shrugged and tapped his wrist gauntlet to activate his comm in speaker mode. “Lancey-Lance here.”

“Okay a, Lance, what the fuck, b, is Kolivan aware that Yorak has a stash of random tools and other things in...where am I even, the vents?”

Kolivan raised an eyebrow. “Yorak took him up there? He doesn’t even take Krolia up there. Although I suppose she’s significantly taller than him….”

“Yeah he sounds aware.”

“Ask him to see if there’s mini spot-welders in there, we’re missing a few.” 

* * *

 

Keith and Yorak reappeared about a varga later in the mess hall with their feet in a few Blades’ food. The Paladin turned as red as his armor and apologized profusely, but the poor Blades just laughed it off and said they were done anyway. Lance noticed that Keith, once he’d taken his boots off, scolded Yorak for trying to lick them clean, and washed them as best he could in the sink, actually managed to eat.

“Hey, Keith, do you like Galran food?”

Keith paused his chewing of something that Lance had no idea what it was but Hunk probably knew. He seemed to think for a moment then swallowed. “I mean, yeah? It’s definitely different than human food, more...savory. Not really salty unlike Earth food.” He made a face that Lance mirrored. The rationing had happened too recently to evolutionarily kill everyone's taste buds yet. The sheer amount of salt preservatives tended to ruin any other flavour. “Lot more veggies too, which I appreciate. Never did get what the meat craze was all about. And it’s a hell of a lot better than a years worth of pizza MREs.”

Lance smiled at the last comment, then blinked down at his plate. “Are you telling me these are all veggies?”

“I mean, I’m not entirely sure but I had a conversation with Kolivan a while back and apparently evolutionarily Galra, while omnivores, have mostly herbivore leanings.”

“...huh. And yet they have fangs and claws.”

“I think that started as--Yorak don’t-- _oof!”_

Yorak had jumped up onto Keith’s lap to try and get at something and accidentally knocked Keith backwards off the bench onto the floor. Lance stood and peered over the table at the other Paladin. “You okay there?” he asked, trying desperately not to laugh.

Keith mumbled through a mouthful of fur “This is at least the third time today he’s knocked me onto the ground so obviously I should just stay here.” Lance sat back down and laughed into his arms. Yorak got off of Keith and made apologetic noises, which earned him an ear rub.

Keith sighed and pulled his legs off the bench so he could sit up. Lance heard him tapping at something and then making a frustrated noise. “What are you trying to do?” he asked, lifting his head back up so he could see Keith sitting on the ground. He had the control panel on his right gauntlet projected above it and was tapping through the menu trying to find something. It was a little hard to read Altean backwards, but Lance was fairly certain “internal music player” was not where Keith meant to be.

“Trying to make sure the amount of times I’ve been slammed into the ground today hasn’t damaged my jetpack or something, except I can’t read Altean for _shit._ Are you sure Pidge hasn’t manage to translate the OS into English? Hell I’d take any Earth language over Altean. I can probably stumble through a Japanese version better than this.”

“Maybe you should just get your helmet,” Lance told him, “I left it in the room Kolivan gave you for the day.”

Keith hummed and picked himself off the floor. “Yeah, that’ll probably end better than me sitting here trying to figure it out with the gauntlet systems. I’ll end up activating the armor self destruct or something. See you later, Lance.”

Lance watched him leave, Yorak on his heels, a tad concerned that a possible self-destruct system was Keith’s first thought of things to accidentally trigger and not something like he’d actually been about to cause, which was Altean music blasting from his armor and possibly every other Paladins’. It’d be a novel way to find Shiro, accidentally activating his armor and causing it to blast horrible Altean classical music.

Hunk plopped himself down in the spot Keith had just vacated. He glanced in the direction Lance was staring just in time to see the door close behind Keith. “He doing any better than this morning?”

“I think the conversation we just had was the most non-mission related words I have heard out of him in weeks.” 

* * *

 

Keith disappeared for the rest of the day. Lance wasn’t sure if he had somehow found his way to the training room and he should be concerned, or if Yorak had simply teleported the other Paladin into his secret stash again.

Either way, when Keith didn’t show for their morning wrap-up meeting with Kolivan, the other Paladins were _definitely_ concerned. That was very much unlike him. Lance volunteered himself to go find their fearless leader, and figured he’d start with the training room.

He was not in the training room, nor the mess, nor the hangar. Lance ran into Vanab in the halls, who told him he hadn’t seen Yorak all day either. So obviously, the two were somewhere together. He hoped Yorak hadn’t teleported Keith into his stash in the vents and left him there or something, because there was no way Lance was fitting in there.

As a last ditch before he tried to wriggle his way through the vents, Lance checked the room Keith had been given for the night. He opened the door and found it lit only in the soft quintessence blue of the running lights, which meant Keith hadn’t so much turned on the lights. With a sigh he turned back and prepared to figure out how to get in the vents.

….wait. Lance blinked the remaining sleep-fog from his brain and turned around again. They weren’t on the Castle. The room shouldn’t have _any_ quintessence-blue glow, unless Keith’s armor was in there with its system fully on, which would only happen if he was still in it. He poked his head fully into the small room. The other Paladn’s armor was stacked neatly in the corner, helmet on top. None of its lights were on. Then why…?

Lance’s eyes finally caught on the dark lump on the bed. Yorak was glaring at him, the electric streaks on his sides and face providing the soft glow. Beneath the dog was Keith, eyes finally closed, breathing sleep-deep and even as it could get with Yorak curled on top of him. Yorak’s soft glow lit his face in an almost ethereal beauty, while at the same time highlighting the dark circles under his eyes. Keith was very, _very_ asleep.

“Oh.” He took a step into the room with the intention of waking Keith up. Yorak _growled_ at him, low and mean. Lance stopped and put his hands up in a gesture that he really hoped the space-wolf would understand as “I come in peace I just wanna wake up the person you’re sleeping on.”

It must have translated at least semi-correctly, because Yorak growled again when Lance took another step forward. Apparently, the dog had no intention of letting Lance wake his Paladin up.

**I….think it might be best to just leave him.** Scarlet told him. Lance silently agreed and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him.

**Damn, when was the last time he slept?** **  
** **Last time I felt him sleep through the night was a very long time ago.**

**What was different about last night?** Lance asked her as he started walking back to the room they were supposed to be meeting in. **Yorak?**

**Quite possibly. Maybe just the change in scenery, maybe the excitement of being dragged around by Yorak for a few hours, maybe just sheer exhaustion. But yeah, probably Yorak.**

**Why though?**

He got the sense of a shrug. **….matching quintessence? He may glow blue but what that dog is is not water quintessence. I suppose that could...somehow...let Yorak sense something’s wrong with him and sit on him until he fell asleep? Or maybe his quintessence somehow interacts with Keith’s and helps him calm the whirlwind, I don’t know. Beings of double-type quintessence get weird sometimes, especially with another being of double- or almost-pure-type. Honestly, I’ve got very little actual idea. Ask Jade, she’s always been better with the intricacies of quintessence interactions.**

Lance walked into the room and was greeted with questioning stares. He held his hands up. “In my defense, Scarlet told me not to wake him up.”

“But….you found him.”

“Oh yeah, he’s absolutely conked out with Yorak on top of him. I got growled at just for opening the door. I vote we leave him there until either he wakes up on his own or we need to leave, whichever comes first. I mean, it’s not like we’re talking about anything we didn’t go over yesterday, and that’s easy enough for either one of us or Kuro to remind him of.” Lance paused for a moment, thinking over the past few movements. “He needs the sleep.” 

* * *

 

Kolivan was tired for once. The Paladins were exhausting to deal with sometimes. Without an active mission, they were all excitable energy without a vector to pour it. He could see how that energy helped them with Voltron, but when they weren’t on mission they were exhausting to say the least.

He was also worried for them. With the Black Paladin’s disappearance, they’d been unable to form Voltron for a while, and then they’d switched Lions. The Blue Paladin and the Princess seemed to have adjusted rather well to their new positions given the short amount of time they’d had to get battle ready, but Keith….

Keith could fight, sure, but he didn’t seem as in tune with himself, the rest of the team, or his Lion as he had been before the fight with Zarkon. Even before the switch he hadn’t seemed to be connecting as well with the Red Lion as he once had. Something seemed to have...doused his fire almost. Kolivan had never seen a Marmorait with such little fire in their eyes.

….granted, he only knew one other Marmorait, but that was beside the point. He was concerned for the kitok. He’d been thrust into a role he had no desire for in a horrible way, given no time to adjust before he had the entire weight of the universe riding on his shoulders. Shiro probably hadn’t had that either.

Kolivan hid a yawn behind his hand as he strode back to the war room they’d been meeting in. He had to look over a few mission reports and send some details along to the Castle before the Paladins left. Almost as soon as he sat down and pulled up the reports, Vanab appeared over his shoulder.

“I can _see_ you hiding your tiredness, Kolivanva. You’re almost as bad as the Red Paladin.”

Kolivan felt paws land on his leg and looked down to see Yorak begging him for pets. He gave the wolf a scratch behind the ears. “I’m not that tired, Vanab.”

“I beg to differ.”

Kolivan sighed. “Not so much tired as….”

“Worried?”

“Yes. They can form Voltron, but I fear the effort is tearing their health apart. Voltron is of no worth if we don’t have functioning Paladins.”

“Aaaaaand?”

Kolivan blinked up at Vanab. “And what?”

“And you care way too much about the kunantok, for reasons I don’t understand. You’ve barely interacted with him outside of missions, Kolivan.”

Kolivan looked down at Yorak, who had his head laid out on his lap, enjoying the ear scritches. “Do you wonder why Yorak took such a shine to Keith?”

Vanab blinked at the sudden change of topic. “I mean, I am wondering since when does Yorak teleport most of the way across the base to jump on top of people he’s never met before.”

“Dúzímúkir can sense quintessences. I imagine Keith’s is at least partially familiar to him.”

Vanab looked confused for a moment before he realized what Kolivan was implying. “You _sap.”_

“I am not a--”

“Oh, yes you are. As your brother I am _obligated_ to inform you that you, Kolivan, Kizudea Marzet, are a complete and utter _sap._ Does she _know?”_

Kolivan resented being called a sap, but the part of him that was indeed secretly a bit of a sap knew that Vanab was correct. “She’s on a deep-cover mission, Vanab, we’re not supposed to communicate with her until extraction.”

“Oh, she is going to _kill_ you, Kolivan.”

**Author's Note:**

> I need to stop teasing Krolia content lmao


End file.
